Saturday, January 7, 2012

Building Your PLN!

I am a strong advocate for teaming, collaboration, professional learning communities, etc. If you've read much of the research around teacher collaboration, you find that it's all basically communicating the same ideas, although it may be classified by a different key term. In the last year, I've become a huge fan of twitter as a tool for my own collaborative opportunities. At the moment, I'm extremely proud of my 90 plus followers! What I've found is that while the opportunities for teachers to collaborate can happen within the school building if principals frame and structure the schedule and create a culture of such, it can be much more difficult for principals. Building your own "PLN"-professional learning network, can seem difficult, but Twitter can help.
I utilize my Twitter account strictly for professional collaboration with other principals all over the country and globe. I've read more about leadership, instruction, etc. on twitter in the last year than I have in books. Make no mistake-I love books. Prior to my principal days, I was an English teacher and I still see myself as a lover of reading and writing. However, my busy principal days paired with my work as a doctoral candidate makes for a busy lifestyle. Catching an #atplc chat on Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. eastern for a few short moments seems quite easier with my smart phone in hand. The wealth of knowledge and resources shared in a few moments or even an hour cannot compare to what might be learned from a single book alone. For those of you striving to get connected this year, here are a list of a few of my favorite tweeters who have significantly impacted my learning:
@21stprincipal
@Howeprincipal
@PrincipalJ
@L_Hilt
@MrWejr
@justintarte

Couple those above with a few of these and you're sure to learn more:
@SchooLeaderPLN
@NewLeadersOrg
@SolutionTree
@Ed_Leadership
@LeadAndLearn